14 What is Civilization?

From Albert Schweitzers own writings it is clear that, aside from his more active life of good works, his theoretical interest centers in the questions: What is civilization? And how can it be restored? For, of course, he sees very clearly that the modern civilized world, so self-styled, is not really a civilized world at all, but as he calls it, a world of Epigoni, inheritors, rather than creators of any positive goods. To the question: What is civilization? I propose to contribute a consideration of the intrinsic meanings of the words civilization, politics and purusa. The root in civilization is kei, as in Greek, keisthai, Sanskrit s, to lie, lie outstretched, be located in. A city is thus a lair, in which the citizen makes his bed on which he must lie. We shall presently ask Who? thus inhabits and economises. The root in politics is pla as in Gr. pimplmi, Skr. pr(piparmi) to fill, Gr. polis, Skr. pur, city, citadel, fortress, Lat. plenum, Skr. prnam, and English fill. The roots in purusa are these two and the intrinsic meaning therefore that of citizen, either as man (this man, So-and-so) or as the Man (in this man, and absolutely); in either way, the purusa is the person to be distinguished by his powers of foresight and understanding from the animal man (pasu) governed by his hunger and thirst.1 In Platos thought there is a cosmic city of the world, the city state, and an individual body politic, all of which are communities (Gr. koinnia, Skr. gana). The same castes (Gr. genos, Skr. jti), equal in number are to be found in the city and in the soul (or self) of each of us;2 the principle of justice is the same throughout, viz. that each member of the community should perform the tasks for which he is fitted by nature; and the establishment of justice and wellbeing of the whole in each case depends upon the answer to the question, Which shall rule, the better or the worse, a single Reason and Common Law or the multitude of moneyed men in the outer city and of desires in the individual (Republic, 441, etc.)? 201

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Who fills, or populates, these cities? Whose are these cities, ours or Gods? What is the meaning of self-government? (a question that, as Plato shows, Republic, 436B, implies a distinction of governor from governed). Philo says that As for lordship (kyris), God is the only citizen (monos polites, Cher. 121), and this is almost identical with the words of the Upanisad, This Man (purusa) is the citizen (purusaya) in every city, (sarvasu prsu, Brhadranyanka Up., II.5.18), and must not be thought of as in any way contradicted by Philos other statement, that Adam (not this man, but the true Man) is the only citizen of the world (monos kosmopolites), Opif. 142). Again, This city (pur is these worlds, the Person (purusa)) is the Spirit (yoyam pavate =Vyu), who because he inhabits (sete) this city is called the Citizen (puru-sa), Satapatha Brhmana, XIII.6.2.1as in Atharva Veda, X.2.30, where He who knoweth Brahmas city, whence the Person (puru-sa) is so-called, him neither sight nor the breath of life desert ere old age, but now the city is that of this body, and the citizens its God-given powers. These macrocosmic and microcosmic points of view are interdependent; for the acropolis, as Plato calls it, of the city is within you and literally at the heart of the city. What is within this City of God (brahmapura, this man) is a shrine3 and what therein is Sky and Earth, Fire and the Gale, Sun and Moon, whatever is possest or unpossest; everything here is within it. The question arises, What then is left over (survives) when this city dies of old age or is destroyed? and the answer is that what survives is That which ages not with our inveteration, and is not slain when we are killed; That is the true City of God;4 That (and by no means this perishable city that we think of as our self) is our Self, unaging and immortal,5 unaffected by hunger and thirst, (Chndogya Up. VIII.1.1-5, slightly abbreviated), That art thou (ibid. VI.8.7); and Verily, he who sees That, contemplates That, discriminates That, he whose game and sport, dalliance and beatitude are in and with that Self (tman), he is autonomous (sva-rj, kreittn heautou, self-governing), he moveth at will in every world;6 but those whose knowing is of what is other-than-That are heteronyomous (anyarj, hettn heautou, subject), they move not at will in any world (ibid. VII.25.2). Thus at the heart of this City of God inhabits (sete) the omniscient, immortal Self, this selfs immortal Self and Duke, as the Lord of all, the Protector of all, the Ruler of all beings and the Inward Controller of all the powers of the soul by which he is sur202

What is Civilization? rounded, as by subjects,7 and to Him (Brahma), thus proceeding in Person (purusa), as he lies there extended (uttnya saynaye), and enthroned (brahmsandhm rdh, atrasada), the powers of the soul (devat, prn), voice, mind, sight, hearing, scent, bring tribute.8 The word extended here states a meaning already implied in the etymology of the city, kei including the sense to lie at full length or outstretched.9 The root in extended and ut-tna is that in Gr. tein and Skr. tan, to extend, prolong, in Gr. tonos, a string, and hence also, tone, and in tenuis, Skr. tanu, thin. Not only are these worlds a city, or am I a city, but these are populated cities, and not waste lands, because He fills them, being one as he is in himself there, and many in his children here (Satapatha Brhmana, X.5.2.16). That dividing itself, unmeasured times, fills (prayati)10 these worlds ... from It continually proceed all animate beings (Maitri Up. V.26). Or with specific reference to the powers of the soul within the individual city, He, dividing himself fivefold, is concealed in the cave (of the heart) ... Thence, having broken forth the doors of the sensitive powers, He proceeds to the fruition of experience ... And so this body is set up in the possession of consciousness, He is its driver (ibid. II.6.d).11 This division, however, is only as it were, for He remains undivided in divided beings (Bhagavad Gt, XIII.16, XVII.20), uninterrupted (anantaram) and thus is to be understood as an undivided and total presence. The division, in other words, is not a segmentation, but an extension, as of radii from a center or rays of light from a luminous source with which they are con-tinuous.12 Con-tinuity and intensity (samtati, syntonia) are, indeed, a necessary quality in whatever can be tensed and extended but, like the immanent Spirit, cannot be severed (acchedya, Bhagavad Gt, II.23)no part of that which is divine cuts itself off and becomes separated, but only extends (ekteinetai=vitanute) itself (Philo, Det. 90). It is then, the same thing to say that the Person fills these worlds as to say that Indra saw this Person as the most widely extended (tatamam) Brahma (Aitareya ranyaka, II.4.3). In this way all the powers of the soul, projected by the mind towards their objects, are extensions (tetomena) of an invisible principle (Republic, 462E), and it is this tonic power by which it is enabled to perceive them (Philo, Leg. Alleg. I.30, 37). Our constitution is a habitation that the Spirit makes for itself just as 203

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy a goldsmith draws-out-for-himself (tanute) from the gold another shape (Brhadranyaka Up. IV.4.4).13 This is an essential aspect of the thread-spirit (strtman) doctrine, and as such the intelligible basis of that of the divine omniscience and providence, to which our partial knowledge and foresight are analogous. The spiritual Sun (not that sun whom all men see but that whom few know with the mind, Atharva Veda, X. 8.14)14 is the Self of the whole universe, (Rg Veda, I.11.5.1) and is connected to all things in it by the thread of his luminous pneumatic rays, on which the tissue of the universe is wovenall this universe is strung on Me, like rows of gems on a thread (Bhagavad Gt, VII.7); of which thread, running through our intellect, the ultimate strands are its sensitive powers, as we have already seen.15 So, just as the noonday sun sees all things under the sun at once, the Person in the Sun, the Light of lights, from the exalted point and center wherein every where and every when is focused (Paradiso, XXIX.23) is simultaneously present to every experience, here or there, past or future, and not a sparrow falls to the ground or ever has or ever will without his present knowledge. He is, in fact, the only seer, thinker, etc., in us (Brhadranyaka Up. III.8.23), and whoever sees or thinks, etc., it is by His ray that he does so (Jaiminya Up. Brhmana, I.28, 29). Thus, in the human City of God which we are considering as a political pattern, the sensitive and discriminating powers form, so to speak, a body of guardsmen by which the Royal Reason is conducted to the perception of sense objects, and the heart is the guardroom where they take their orders (Plato, Timaeus, 70B, Philo, Opif. 139, Spec. IV.22 etc.). These powershowever referred to as Gods,16 Angels, Aeons, Maruts, Rsis, Breaths, Daimons, etc.are the people (visa, yeomanry, etc.) of the heavenly kingdom, and related to their Chief (vispati) as are thanes to an Earl or ministers to a King; they are a troop of the Kings Own (sv), by which he is surrounded as if by a crown of gloryupon whose head the Aeons are a crown of glory darting forth rays (Coptic Gnostic Treatise, XII), and by thy glory I understand the powers that form thy bodyguard (Philo, Spec. I1, 45).17 The whole relationship is one of feudal loyalty, the subjects bringing tribute and receiving largesseThou art ours and we are thine (Rg Veda, VIII.92.32), Thine may we be for thee to give us treasure (ibid. V.85.8, etc.).18 What must never be forgotten is that all our powers are not 204

What is Civilization? our own, but delegated powers and ministries through which the royal Power is exercised (another sense of Gr. teino); the powers of the soul are only the names of His acts (Brhadranyaka Up. I.4.7, 1.5.21,. etc.).19 It is not for them to serve their own or one anothers self-interestsof which the only result will be the tyranny of the majority, and a city divided against itself, man against man and class against classbut to serve Him whose sole interest is that of the common body politic. Actually, in the numerous accounts we have of a contest for precedence amongst the powers of the soul, it is always found that none of the members or powers is indispensable to the life of the bodily city, except only their Head, the Breath and immanent Spirit. The right and natural life of the powers of the soul is then, precisely, their function of bringing tribute to their fountain-head, the controlling Mind and very Self, as man brings sacrificial offerings to an altar, keeping for themselves only what remains. It is the task of each to perform the functions from which it is fitted by nature, the eye seeing, the ear hearing, all of which functions are necessary to the well-being of the community of the whole man but must be coordinated by a disinterested power that cares for all. For unless this community can act unanimously, as one man, it will be working at all sorts of cross purposes. The concept is that of a corporation in which the several members of a community work together, each in its own way; and such a vocational society is an organism, not an aggregate of competing interests and consequently unstable balance of power. Thus the human City of God contains within itself the pattern of all other societies and of a true civilization. The man will be a just (Gr. dikaios) man when each of his members performs its own appropriate task and is subject to the ruling Reason that exercises forethought on behalf of the whole man; and in the same way the public city will be just when there is agreement as to which shall rule, and there is no confusion of functions but every occupation is a vocational responsibility. Not, then, where there are no classes or castes but where everyone is a responsible agent in some special field.20 A city can no more be called a good city if it lacks this justice (dikaiosyn) than it could be were it wanting wisdom, sobriety or courage; and these four are the great civic virtues. Where occupations are thus vocations more will be done, and better done, 205

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and with more ease than in any other way (Republic, 370C). But if one who is by nature a craftsman or some sort of businessman be tempted and inflated by wealth or by his command of votes or by his own might or any such thing, and tries to handle military matters, or if a soldier tries to be a counselor or guardian, for which he is unfitted, and if these men interchange their tools and honors, or if one and the same man tries to handle all these functions at once, then, I take it, you too hold that this sort of perversion and being jack-of-all-trades will be the ruin of the city; and this is injustice (Republic, 434B). Thus the ideal society is thought of as a kind of co-operative work-shop in which production is to be for use and not for profit, and all human needs, both of the body and the soul, are to be provided for. Moreover, if the command is to be fulfilled, Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect, the work must be perfectly done.21 The arts are not directed to the advantage of anything but their object (Republic, 432B), and that is that the thing made should be as perfect as possible for the purpose for which it is made. This purpose is to satisfy a human need (Republic, 369B, C); and so the perfectionism required, although not altruistically motivated, actually serves humanity in a way that is impossible where goods are made for sale rather than for use, and in quantity rather than quality. In the light of Platos definition of justice as vocational occupation we can the better understand the words, Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and these things shall be added unto you (Matthew, 6:33). The Indian philosophy of work is identical. Know that action arises from Brahma. He who on earth doth not follow in his turn the wheel thus revolving liveth in vain; therefore, without attachment to its rewards, ever be doing what should be done, for, verily, thus man wins the Ultimate. There is nothing I needs must do, or anything attainable that is not already mine; and yet I mingle in action. Act thou, accordingly, with a view to the welfare of the world; for whatever the superior does, others will also do; the standard he sets up, the world will follow. Better is ones own norm,22 however deficient, than that of another well done; better to die at ones own post, that of another is full of fear ... Vocations are determined by ones own nature. Man attains perfection through devotion to his own work. How? By praising Him in his own work, from whom is the 206

What is Civilization? unfolding of all beings and by whom this whole universe is extended (tatam, <tan). Better is a mans own work, even with its faults, than that of another well done; he who performs the task that his own nature lays upon him incurs no sin; one should never abandon his inherited23 vocation.24 On the one hand the inspired tradition rejects ambition, competition and quantitive standards; on the other, our modern civilization is based on the notions of social advancement, free enterprise (devil take the hindmost) and production in quantity. The one considers mans needs, which are but little here below; the other considers his wants, to which no limit can be set, and of which the number is artificially multiplied by advertisement. The manufacturer for profits must, indeed, create an ever-expanding world market for his surplus produced by those whom Dr. Schweitzer calls over-occupied men. It is fundamentally, the incubus of world trade that makes of industrial civilizations a curse to humanity, and from the industrial concept of progress in line with the manufacturing enterprise of civilization that modern wars have arisen and will arise; it is on the same impoverished soil that empires have grown, and by the same greed that innumerable civilizations have been destroyedby Spaniards in South America, Japanese in Korea and by white shadows in the South Seas.25 Dr. Schweitzer himself records that it is very hard to carry to completion a colonisation which means at the same time a true civilization ... The machine age brought upon mankind conditions of existence which made the possession of civilization difficult26 ... Agriculture and handicraft are the foundation of civilization ... Whenever the timber trade is good, permanent famine reigns in the Ogowe region27 ... They live on imported rice and imported preserved foods which they purchase with the proceeds of their labour ... thereby making home industry impossible ... As things are, the world trade which has reached them is a fact against which we and they are powerless.28 I do not consent to this picture of a deus, or much rather diabolus, ex machina, coupled as it is with a confession of impotence.29 If, indeed, our industrialism and trade practice are the mark of our uncivilization, how dare we propose to help others to attain a condition of well-being? The burden is of our own making and bows our own shoulders first. Are we to say that because of economic 207

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy determination we are impotent to shake it off and stand up straight? That would be to accept the status of Epigoni once and for all, and to admit that our influence can only lower others to our own level.30 As we have seen, in a true civilization, laborare est orare. But industrialismthe mammon of in-justice (Gr. adikia)and civilization are incompatible. It has often been said that one can be a good Christian even in a factory; it is no less true that one could be an even better Christian in the arena. But neither of these facts means that either factories or arenas are Christian or desirable institutions. Whether or not a battle of religion against industrialism and world trade can ever be won is no question for us to consider; our concern is with the task and not with its reward; our business is to be sure that in any conflict we are on the side of Justice.31 Even as things are, Dr. Schweitzer finds his best excuse for colonial government in the fact that to some extent (however slightly) such governments protect subject peoples from the merchant. Why not protect ourselves (the guinea-pigs of a well known book) from the merchant? Would it not be better if, instead of tinkering with the inevitable consequences of world trade, we considered its cause, and set about to re-form (Wideraufbauen is Schweitzers word) our own civilization? Or shall the uncivilized for ever pretend to civilizing missions? To reform what has been deformed means that we must take account of an original form, and that is what we have tried to do in historical analysis of the concept of civilization, based on Eastern and Western sources. Forms are by definition invisible to sense. The form of our City of God is one that exists only in words, and nowhere on earth, but is, it seems, laid up in heaven for whomsoever will to contemplate, and as he does so, to inhabit; it can be seen only by the true philosophers who bend their energies towards those studies that nourish rather soul than body and never allow themselves to be carried away by the congratulations of the mob or without measure to increase their wealth, the source of measureless evils32 but rather fix their eyes upon their own interior politics, never aiming to be politicians in the city of their birth (Republic, 591 E, F). Is not Plato altogether right when he proposes to entrust the government of cities to the uncorrupted remnant of true philos208

What is Civilization? ophers who now bear the stigma of uselessness33 or even to those who are now in power if by some divine inspiration34 a genuine love of true philosophy should take possession of them: and altogether right when he maintains that no city ever can be happy unless its outlines have been drawn by draughtsmen making use of the divine pattern (Republic, 499, 500)that of the City of God that is in heaven and within you?35

Notes
1. As in Aitareya ranyaka, II.3.2 and Boethius, Contra Eutychen. 2. Platos Immortal Soul (Self), and two parts of the mortal soul (self), together with the body itself, make up the normal number of four castes that must cooperate for the benefit of the whole community. 3. The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17: 21); en haut politeia (Republic, 591 E). The King survives his kingdoms and lives forever. Just as, in the traditional theory of government, the Kingship immanent in kings antecedes them and survives them, le roi est mort, vive le roi. 4. Platos polis en logois (Skr. srute), kaimen epei ges ge oudamou (Republic 592A). 5. That eternally youthful Spiritual-Self of which whoever is a Comprehensor has no fear of death (Atharva Veda, X.8.44). 6. This liberty, so often spoken of in the Vedic tradition from Rg Veda, IX.123.9 onwards, corresponds to the Platonic term autokinsis (Phaedrus, 245D, Laws, 895BC) and to John, 10: 9 shall go in and out, and find pasture. 7. BU. III.8.23, IV.4.22, Katha Up. II.18, Mund Up. II.2.6. 7, Maitri Up. VI.7, etc. 8. Jaiminya Up. Brhmana, IV, 23.7-23.10, somewhat condensed. 9. The divine extension in the three dimensional space of the world that is thus filled is a cosmic crucifixion to which the local crucifixion in two dimensions corresponds. To the extent that we think of Him as really divided up by this extension, i.e. to the extent that we conceive of our being as our own, we crucify him daily. 10. Causative of pr, the root in pr and so populates or even civilizes. 11. Psyche men estin h periagousa hmn pantn, Laws, 898C; Questi nei cor mortali permotore, Paradiso, I.116; the heart has pulled the reins of the five senses (Rm, Mathnaw, I.3275). Throughout the Vedic tradition (most explicitly in Katha Up. III.3 f. and Jtaka, VI. 242) as in Plato, (Phaedrus, 246f). Philo, (Leg. Alleg. I.72, 73, III. 224, Spec. IV. 79, etc.) and Boethius, etc., mans constitution in which the spiritual Self-of-all-beings rides as passenger for so long as the vehicle holds together, mind (manas, nous) holds the reins; but being twofold, clean or unclean, disinterested or interested, may either control or be run away with by the team of the senses. The chariot, city, ship and puppet symbols are equivalent, so that, for example, when Mind as charioteer rules the whole living being, as a governor does a city, then life holds a straight course. (Philo, Leg. Alleg. III.224, cf. Rg Veda, VI.75.6). The whole conception of yoga (yuj, to yoke, harness, join) is connected with the symbolism of the chariot and team; we still speak of bridling our passions.

209

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

12. Hence viraj, literally distributive shining = ruling power. 13. Gold in such contexts is not a figure of speech, but of thought, Gold is (we should now say means) light, life, immortality (Satapatha Brhmana, passim, and traditionally); and to refine this gold is to burn away from our spiritual Self the dross of all that is not-Self. Hence it is a golden cord by which the human puppet is rightly guided (Plato, Laws, 644) and Blake gives us a golden string that will lead you in at heavens gate. 14. Sun of the sun, Mahbhrata, V. 46.3 and Philo, Spec. I.279; invisible light perceptible only by mind, Philo, Opif. 31; whose body the sun is, who controls the sun from within, Brhadranyaka Up. III. 7.9; whose body is seen by all, his soul by none, Plato, Laws, 898 D; Light of lights, Bhagavad Gt, X. 11. 17;, Rg Veda, I. 113.1; that was the true Light ... of the world, John, 1:9, 9:5; the Sun of men, Rg Veda, I. 146, 4 and Light of men, John, 1:4, seated in every heart, Bhagavad Gt, XIII.17, Maitri Up, VI. 1. 15. We cannot expound the thread-spirit doctrine at length here. In the European tradition it can be traced from Homer to Blake. For some of the references see my Primitive Mentality, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, XXXI, 1940 and Literary Symbolism in the Dictionary of World Literature, 1943. See Philo, Immut. 35 and passim; also my Spiritual Paternity and the Puppet Complex in Psychiatry, VIII, 1945, reprinted A. K. Coomaraswamy, The Bugbear of Literacy, 1947. 16. Or Sons of God. Cf. Boehme, Signatura Rerum, XIV. 5 Each angelical prince is a property out of the voice of God, and bears the great name of God. It is with reference to these powers that it is said that All these Gods are in me (Jaiminya Upanisad Brhmana, I. 14.2), that All things are full of Gods (Thales, cited Plato, Laws, 899 B) and that Making the Man (purusa) their mortal house, the Gods indwelt him (Atharva Veda, XI. 8.18); accordingly, He is indeed initiated, whose Gods within him are initiated, mind by Mind, voice by Voice etc. (Kaustaki Brhmana, VII. 4).. We need hardly say that such a multiplicity of Gods-tens and thousands-is not a polytheism, for all are the angelic subjects of the Supreme Deity from whom they originate and in whom, as we are so often reminded, they again become one. Their operation is an epiphany (Kaustaki Up. II. 12. 13. This Brahma, verily, shines when one sees with the eye, and likewise dies when one does not see). These Gods are Angels, or as Philo calls them, the Ideas-i.e. Eternal Reasons. 17. The double meaning of Gr., stephanos must be remembered: (1) as crown and (2) as city wall; thus both a glory and a defense. Children are a mans crown, towers of the city (Homeric Epigrams, XIII). In the same way Pali clik, usually turban, is also a city wall, as in Samyutta Nikya, II. 182 nagaram ... clik-baddham. Philos interpretation of the glory has an exact equivalent in India, where the powers of the soul are glories (sriyah) and collectively the kingdom, the power and the glory (sr) of their royal possessors; and, accordingly, the whole science of government is one of the control of these powers (Arthasstra, 1. 6; see my Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government, 1942, p. 86). Non potest aliquis habere ordinatam familiam, nisi ipse sit ordinatus [one cannot have discipline in his family, unless he (first) have it in himself], St. Bonaventura, De don. S. S. IV. 10. V, p. 475, being applicable to everyone who proposes to govern himself, a city or a kingdom. 18. On bhakti (devotion, or perhaps better fealty, and literally participation) as

210

What is Civilization?
a reciprocal relationship, see my Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government, 1942, note 5, and my Hinduism and Buddhism, 1943, p.20. 19. I do nothing, so should deem the harnessed man, the knower of Ultimate Reality (Bhagavad Gt, V. 8). I do nothing of myself (John 8: 28, cf. 5:19). To think that I do (kart ham iti) or I think is an infatuation, Philos oisis (Leg. Alleg. 1.47, 2.68, 3.33) and Indian abhimna. The proposition Cogito ergo sum is a non sequitur and non-sense; the true conclusion being Cogito ergo EST with reference to Him who Is (Damascene, De fid. orthod. I; Katha Up. VI.12; Milinda Paha p. 73) and can alone say I (Meister Eckhart, Pfeiffer, p. 261). Cf. also the references in my kimca: Self-Naughting, New Ind. Antiquary 1940. Nichts anders strzet dich in Hllenschlund hinein Als das verhasste Wort (merks wohl!): das Mein and Dein Nothing else will so readily cast one into the jaws of Hell as the detestable words (mark them well!) mine and thine (Angelus Silesius, Der Cherubinische Wandersmann, V. 238). 20. In which case, every occupation is a profession; not merely a way of earning ones living, but a way of life, to abandon which is to die a death. The man who has shifted, easily and unworried so long as the pay was good, from one job to another, has no deep respect for himself (Margaret Mead, And Keep Your Powder Dry, p. 222). 21. It is a commonplace of medieval theory that the craftsmans primary concern is with the good of the work to be done, and this means that it must be at the same time pulcher et aptus (beautiful and appropriate). A Buddhist text defining the entelechies of the different vocational groups calls that of the householder whose support is an art perfected work, Anguttara Nikya, III.363. 22. Sva-dharma = sva-karma, Platos ta heautou prattein, kata physin. Dharma is a pregnant term, difficult to translate in the present context; cf. eidos in Republic 434A. In general, dharma (literally support, dhr as in dhruva, fixed, Pole Star, and Gr. thronos) is synonymous with Truth. Than this ruling principle there is nothing higher (Brhadranyaka Up. I.4.14); dharma is the kings King (Anguttara Nikya, I.109), i.e. King of kings; and there can be no higher title than that of dharma-rj, King of justice. Hence the well-known designation of the veritable Royalty as Dharmarj, to be distinguished from the personality of the king in whom it temporarily inheres. Ones own dharma is precisely Platos justice, viz. to perform the task for which one is naturally equipped. Justice, Gr. dik (Skr. [root]dis, to indicate) represents in the same way the ultimate Index and standard by which all action must be judged. Dharma is lex aeterna, sva-dharma lex naturalis. 23. For our tradition, procreation is a debt, and its purpose is to maintain the continuity of ministerial functions in a stable society (see my Hinduism and Buddhism, 1943, note 146). For only so can the bases of civilization be preserved. 24. Bhagavad Gt, III.1535 and XVIII.1848, slightly abbreviated. 25. Cf. My Am I my Brothers Keeper?, Asia and the Americas, March 1943, reprinted in The Bugbear of Literacy, 1947.. 26. The machine ... is the achievement of which man is capable if he relies entirely on himselfGod is no longer needed ... Eventually ... (it) transforms him into a machine himself (Ernst Niekisch, quoted by Erich Meissner in Germany in Peril, 1942). 27. When nations grow old, the arts grow cold, and commerce settles on every tree (William Blake). 28. Albert Schweitzer, Zwischen Wasser und Urwald, cited in his My Life and Thought.

211

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

29. I have no more faith than a grain of mustard seed in the future history of civilization, which I know now is doomed to destruction: what a joy it is to think of! (William Morris). For by civilized men we now mean industrialised men, mechanised societies ... We call all men civilized, if they employ the same mechanical techniques to master the physical world. And we call them so because we are certain that as the physical world is the only reality and as it only yields to mechanical manipulation, that is the only way to behave. Any other conduct can only spring from illusion; it is the behaviour of an ignorant, simple savage. To have arrived at this picture of reality is to be truly advanced, progressive, civilized (Gerald Heard, Man the Master, 1937, p. 25). It is also to have arrived at what has properly been called a world of impoverished reality (Iredell Jenkins), and one that can only impoverish those to whom we communicate it. 30. Cf. A. J. Krzesinski, Is Modern Culture Doomed? 1942, especially Msgr. G. B. OTooles Introduction, and Znaniecki as cited on p.54 note; and Eric Gill, It All Goes Together, 1944. 31. Whoever owns a single share in any manufacturing enterprise for profit is to that extent taking sides and to that. extent responsible for world trade and all its consequences. 32. The body, for the sake of which we desire wealth, is the ultimate cause of all wars (Phaedo, 66 c); and victory breeds hatred, because the conquered are unhappy (Dhammapada, 201). World trade and world war are congeneric evils. Whatever we have said about the government of men and cities will apply, of course, to a government of the world by cooperative and disinterested nations. Every attempt to establish balances of power must end in war. 33. Noblesse oblige. In a city that has fostered true philosophers the latter owe it to their fosterers to participate in civic affairs and so in the traditional theory of government it is incumbent upon the representatives of the spiritual authority to oversee and guide those who exercise the temporal power; to see to it, in other words, that might supports right, and does not assert itself. On the function of such philosophers in the regeneration of modern society, cf. Gerald Heard, Man the Master, and Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means, 1937. 34. I suppose that in the history of criticism nothing more inane has ever been propounded than Paul Shoreys comment, But we must not attribute personal superstition to Plato (Loeb ed. p. 64). Solecisms such as this must be expected whenever nominalists set out to expound the doctrine of realistic philosophers, but why do men set out to expound philosophies in which they do not believe? 35. The work to be done is primarily one of purgation, to drive out the money changers, all who desire power and office, and all representatives of special interests; and secondly, when the city has been thus cleaned up, one of considered imitation of the natural forms of justice, beauty, wisdom and other civic virtues; amongst which we have here considered justice, or as the word dikaiosyn is commonly translated in Christian contexts, righteousness. It may be, as Plato says, very difficult to bring about such a change of mind as is required if we are to progress in this way, but as he also says, it is not impossible; and so we may not cease from Mental Fight ... till we have built Jerusalem.

212